Craft with my boys - twig heart

Whenever Billy is having an 'off' day I always feel guilty that Jo didn't get out of the house much (if at all), so I'm always on the look out for things that we can do together. I saw a twig heart for sale online one evening and decided that it would be great fun to try and make one with the boys on one of our 'stuck in the house days'. Over the summer we started clearing our very overgrown garden so we have lots of twigs left where there were some trees, and I knew that I still had lots of different coloured garden wire left that belonged to my Grandad. I made the frame one evening, Jo and I then collected the twigs the next day and weaved them into the frame whilst Billy watched and told us where he thought each one should go.  Here is our step by step guide...

You will need

• Garden wire (available from Garden Centre's or even supermarkets during summer)
• Wire cutters
• Twigs
• String 
• Ribbon (Ribbons from packets or clothes loops are always handy to keep)
• Elastic band 

How to make it

1. Decide roughly how big you want the heart to be and cut your wire accordingly.

2. Using half of the length of the wire mould the it into a heart shape. Don't cut off the excess wire.

3. Using the rest of the wire make loops around the heart outline. (See step 3 photo.)

4. Collect twigs, wash them and leave them to dry.

5. Weave the twigs into the frame using and elastic band to hold them in place at the top.

6. Wrap the string around the heart hiding any wire and elastic band that is showing through.

7. Tie the ribbon to the top of the heart making a loop so that it can be hung up.

Step 2

Step 3

Steps 5 and 6

Step 7 

Back to pre-school...What's in the bag?

Billy is due to start pre-school again next week after 7 months off (his immune system couldn't cope with all the bugs that were going around at the start of the year) and I've had lots of time to search for things that will help his return go as smoothly as possible. Here are some of the items that I will be packing in his bag...

Ear protectors
Billy is really sensitive to sound and when he tried pre-school at the beginning of the year he got very anxious about how loud it was, especially the noise of the hand dryer that is in the toilets. I bought him some ear defenders from Amazon (Find them here.) and explained to him that I'll leave them in his bag so if it gets too noisy he can go and get them. Giving him this sense of control seems to have taken away some of the worries he's had about the noise when he goes back.


Allergy stickers
I got 'BEWARE I have allergies' stickers for trips or if the pre-school get any support staff in. I got these from Allergy Buddies (Find them here) who do a fantastic range of allergy alert clothing and accessories.  I was really impressed with how quickly these arrived, I thought I'd left it too late to order them before the start of pre-school but they arrived the day after my order was processed.


Pants
I bought some of the day time pants from the ERIC website (Find them here.) which are specifically designed for daytime accidents so that Billy wouldn't feel self conscious about wearing nappies. I was slightly concerned about the fit as the sizes go straight from 3-4 to 5-6, I chose age 5-6 and although they're slightly on the big side I'm glad I went with the bigger size.

Wipes and handgel
I'll provide pre-school with lots of wipes and handgel that is safe for Billy to use but they also know that his hands need washing regularly as it's obviously the best way to get rid of proteins and germs.


Snacks and drink
As Billy can't even eat fruit anymore I will put some homemade sweet and savoury biscuits in his bag and a flask of water.  (See earlier post for the sweet biscuit recipe).

Here's hoping everthing goes okay this time!

Easypeasy Biscuits!

Baking snacks that both boys can enjoy making and eating takes some thought due to the them being on different elimination diets. Billy is allergic to dairy,  soya, wheat, egg, oats, coconut and pea protein and is intolerant to fructose (which rules out all fruit and most vegetables),  and Jo is allergic to dairy, soya wheat and fish. When the boys are helping me bake it's obviously much easier and more enjoyable if the method is simple. As Billy is really sensitive to noise we mix everything by hand too.   I've come up with a really simple biscuit recipe which they can both help make and eat.

Ingredients:
Safe flour (we buy from the Dove's farm range which are available from most supermarkets)
Carbonated water
Table sugar

Method:
1. Put a chosen amount of flour into mixing bowl. (I usually put enough in so that the bowl is one third full).
2. Pour carbonated water into the flour mixing as you go. When the mixture becomes a sticky dough-like consistancy that is easy to form you have added enough water.
3. Add as little sugar as you can get away with!
4. Form into shapes with your hands or flatten with your fist and use shape cutters.
5. Bake in a pre-heated over at 180 degrees for around 10 minutes (until they start to go abit golden).  The biscuits will still be soft when you get them out but once left to cool they will harden.

Variations:
If your children are able to eat fruit you could flavour with puréed fruit instead of sugar but add this before the carbonated water as it will change the consistency of the mix.  You could also use flavoured carbonated water.